Danish Crown has expanded its pizza topping portfolio with the acquisition of Danish pepperoni producer DK Foods.
DK Foods will join Danish Crown’s subsidiary the Tulip Food Company – which produces a wide range of pizza toppings, snacks and canned foods – as an independent unit.
The acquisition will drastically increase the production capacity of Tulip, according to the company.
Danish Crown is aiming to establish itself as the leading pizza toppings manufacturer in Europe, and the company claims this acquisition will prove an integral part of this strategy.
Jais Valeur, group CEO of Danish Crown said: “DK Foods presents an opportunity to intensify our group’s strategic focus on pizza toppings by becoming the market leader in pepperoni.
“The pizza market is growing globally, and we see considerable potential in DK-Foods. We’ll be able to process a larger proportion of our own raw materials, thereby boosting our growth and earnings potential for the benefit of our owners – the Danish farmers.”
DK Foods executives Per Fischer Larsen and Steffen Ramsgaard will retain their positions on the DK Foods board, and they added: “We’re both delighted and proud that DK Foods is now becoming a part of the Danish Crown group, which, like us, has ambitious plans for the pepperoni category.
“Over the past 15 years, we have evolved from being a niche producer into a very significant market player, and as part of Danish Crown, we see new and great opportunities for continuing this positive growth.
“We’ll be strengthened through the upstream integration of raw materials and given the group’s ambition of becoming a leading player in the wider toppings category, we’ll become an even stronger partner for both our current and future customers.”
Source: FoodBev
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